In early April, a group of 40 “Second Generation” Jews traveled to Vienna at the invitation of the Jewish Welcome Service. The trip took place as part of the “visitor program for expelled Jews and their descendants.” The guests came from the US, Australia, Argentina, England, and Israel.
The varied program included, among other things, a reception with Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and with City Councilor Veronica Kaup-Hasler at Vienna City Hall. Among the participants was George Deutsch, who survived the Holocaust as a small child thanks to a series of fortunate coincidences. His mother Johanna was an Austrian slalom champion, while his father Ernst was the only Jewish state-certified ski instructor in Austria. Also among the guests was Linda Pollack-Kessler, who was on the search for clues about her great-aunt, Käthe Malamet. Käthe was born in 1886 in Vienna and murdered in the Maly Trostenets extermination camp in 1942.
Comprehensive visitor program and talks with contemporary witnesses
Eighty-year-old Silvia Goldschmidt from Argentina also took up the invitation by the Jewish Welcome Service. She told the extraordinary story of her Jewish mother (born 1913). She was a Viennese beauty queen with whom an SS general fell in love, enabling the family to flee before the November pogroms in 1938. Mark Lichtenstein, whose parents were born in Vienna, was also among the guests. His family’s Vienna apartment was destroyed during the pogroms in 1938; some of the family managed to flee, but many other family members were unable to escape.
The extensive visitor program also included visits to graves at the Vienna Central Cemetery and stops at the Jewish Museum, the Wien Museum and the traveling Kindertransport exhibition “For the Child,” as well as a city tour and a walking tour through Jewish Vienna. In addition, intensive research in the archives of the Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG) was made possible. And of special significance were the conversations with contemporary witnesses at the Kenyongasse Education Centre and the Zwi-Peres-Chajes School, where guests recounted tales from their family stories to students. The visit was rounded out by participation in a Shabbat service and a shared Shabbat dinner at the IKG community centre.
Reports (in German) on the group’s stay:
